{"product_id":"luminous-debris-reflecting-on-vestige-in-provence-and-languedoc-9780520222458","title":"Luminous Debris: Reflecting on Vestige in Provence and Languedoc","description":"Interpreting vestige with the eloquence of a poet and the knowledge of a field archaeologist, Gustaf Sobin explores his elected terrain: the landscapes of Provence and Languedoc. Drawing on prehistory, protohistory, and Gallo-Roman antiquity, the twenty-six essays in this book focus on a particular place or artifact for the relevance inherent in each. A Bronze Age earring or the rippling wave pattern in Massiolite ceramic are more than archival curiosities for Sobin. Instead they invite inquiry and speculation on existence itself: Artifacts are read as realia, and history as an uninterrupted sequence of object lessons.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs much travel writing as meditative discourse, \u003ci\u003eLuminous Debris\u003c\/i\u003e is enhanced by a prose that tracks, questions, and reflects on the materials invoked. Sobin engages the reader with precise descriptions of those very materials and the messages to be gleaned from their examination, be they existential, ethical, or political.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn American expatriate living in Provence for the past thirty-five years, Gustaf Sobin shares his enthusiasm for his adopted landscape and for a vertical interpretation of its strata. In \u003ci\u003eLuminous Debris\u003c\/i\u003e he creates meaning out of matter and celebrates instances of reality, past and present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGustaf Sobin's\u003c\/b\u003e books include \u003ci\u003eVoyaging Portraits\u003c\/i\u003e (1988), \u003ci\u003eVenus Blue: A Novel\u003c\/i\u003e (1991), \u003ci\u003eBreaths' Burials\u003c\/i\u003e (1995), \u003ci\u003eBy the Bias of Sound\u003c\/i\u003e (1996), and \u003ci\u003eTowards the Blanched Alphabets \u003c\/i\u003e(1998). A novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Fly-Truffler\u003c\/i\u003e, set in Provence, is forthcoming this year.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50412579422482,"sku":"9780520222458","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6b20c777-80ce-45c2-8901-d2fafd534291.jpg?v=1729317728","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/luminous-debris-reflecting-on-vestige-in-provence-and-languedoc-9780520222458","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}